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Friday, March 10, 2017

Legendary. It’s hard
to know where to begin to review this book, but that one word encapsulates it
well. There’s a reason Pathfinder is thriving a decade into its
existence, and it all starts here. If you
don’t know anything about Pathfinder,
you can think of it as a revised and improved version of a specific edition of
D&D (the “3.5” edition). Its
strength is the nearly infinite capacity for customization, and its weakness is
that enormous customization introduces complexity. In other words, this is a “crunch heavy”
instead of a “rules light” game. Trust
me, it’s worth it though. This is going
to be a long review because I’ve got fifteen chapters to cover in this massive,
575-page book! If you don’t have the
patience to read through the whole review, the conclusion makes it clear: buy
this book. With this and the Bestiary, you have years of adventure at
your fingertips.

Chapter 1 is “Getting Started” (12 pages). This chapter contains a brief introduction to
the game, an overview of each chapter, a glossary of common terms, an example
of play (very useful if this is your first RPG ever), and the rules for
generating ability scores for a character (how physically and mentally capable
they are).

Chapter 2 is “Races” (11 pages). The “Core” races presented
here are: Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes,
Half-Elves, Half-Orcs, Halflings, and Humans.
As you would imagine, there are advantages and disadvantages to each
race. The chapter spends a page on each
race, and beyond the rules ramifications it takes care to talk about what
members of that race typically look like, what their culture is like, why they
often become adventurers, and how they relate to other races. It’s not an overwhelming amount of
information (which is good for new players).
For the most part, these races stick to fairly standard fantasy
expectations.

Chapter 3 is “Classes” (57 pages). There are eleven “core
classes” presented in this book:
Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue,
Sorcerer, and Wizard. The spread of
classes does an excellent job covering different play-styles and roles within a
group. The power level of these classes
has been significantly bumped up from D&D 3.5, and there are a lot more
choices to be made within each class.
This makes the classes more complex, but also more satisfying to see
advance up through each level. If you’re
brand-new to Pathfinder, it might be good to stay away from spell-casters like
the Druid, Cleric, Sorcerer, and Wizard until you get more experience, as the
sheer number of choices to be made can be overwhelming at first.

Chapter 4 is “Skills” (27 pages). Skills are something that
every character has and they determine the likelihood of success in doing certain
things. Want to leap from one rooftop to
another? Roll an Acrobatics check. Want to figure out what spell that evil
wizard just cast at you? Roll a Spellcraft
check. Different classes get bonuses to
using particular skills, but every character, regardless of class, can become
good at something if they invest their “skill points” in a particular
skill. Pathfinder has condensed the
number of skills slightly from D&D 3.5, though it still has more than newer
RPGs tend to have. I like the diversity
and ability to specialize in discrete areas, but some think there should have
been further consolidation. Each skill
is described with great detail on specifically what it allows you to do and not
do, which is quite helpful in avoiding rules arguments.

Chapter 5 is “Feats” (29 pages). Feats are special
abilities. Every character gets to
choose one feat at every odd level, and some classes and races get “bonus”
feats. A feat might be something that
lets you fight better in darkness (“Blindfighting”) or it might be something
that makes certain spells you cast more effective (“Spell Focus”). There are several dozen feats to choose from,
so this can be one of the parts of character creation that takes the longest to
do. Their value, again, is that they
allow for enormous customization of a character. Just because there are two Fighters in the
party doesn’t mean they’ll be identical, because feats allow them to operate in
very different ways!

Chapter 6 is “Equipment” (16 pages). Your character will
need a weapon, maybe some armor, and some other gear like a backpack or a coil
of rope. But in addition, you might
wonder how expensive a night’s stay at an inn is, or how much it’ll cost to
persuade a local wizard to cast a spell for you. All of the answers are in this chapter. I really appreciate that every item and
service isn’t just listed on a table with a price, but in addition most receive
a description, a picture, and (sometimes) additional rules to explain how it
works in actual gameplay.

Chapter 7 is “Additional Rules” (13 pages). The title of this chapter isn’t particularly
helpful, as the entire book consists of rules.
Really, it’s a miscellany of various things about your character. First up is Alignment, which is whether your
character is good, evil, or somewhere in between. A lot of other RPGs dispense with such
questions, but it is “hard-coded” into Pathfinder in the sense that it’s not
just a role-playing choice: many spells, magic items, and other effects change
depending on a character’s alignment.
Next, there’s a few pages on “Vital Statistics” like determining a
character’s age, height and weight, and (most importantly) carrying capacity
(also known as “encumbrance”). If your
character has a low Strength score, don’t expect him or her to be able to carry
a lot of gear. Then, there’s a
discussion of movement speeds in various contexts (in the course of a combat
encounter, for example, or for travelling great distances overland). Last, a bunch of little things are covered
under the title “Exploration”: how far
characters can see in different levels of light, how to determine if an object
can be intentionally broken, etc. It’s a
chapter that’s easy to overlook but provides answers to a lot of “little things”
that might come up during a session.

Chapter 8 is “Combat” (29 pages). Combat is a major part of Pathfinder, and
there’s admittedly a lot to digest in a short number of pages here. The way the chapter is laid out isn’t
necessarily intuitive, and later Paizo products (like the Strategy Guide) do a much better job making combat clearer. You’ll find everything you need in this
chapter, but you’ll be flipping back and forth for a while. I’ve been playing for years and I still refer
to it occasionally.

Chapter 9 is “Magic” (19 pages). This chapter discusses different categories
of spells, how characters learn them, and how to read a spell entry in the next
chapter. It’s a chapter that’s easy to
skip over at first, but is actually pretty important once a campaign gets
serious.

Chapter 10 is “Spells” (156 pages). You read that right: about a quarter of the book consists of an
alphabetical list and description of several hundred different spells! The spells have been cleaned up and improved
from D&D 3.5 for better gameplay, but what hasn’t changed is that magic
still rules. If pure power is what you
want, play a true spell-caster and you’ll find it.

Chapter 11 is “Prestige Classes” (23 pages). Prestige Classes are special classes that
characters can eventually take, well into their adventuring careers, if they
meet certain prerequisites. This book
has ten of them: Arcane Archer, Arcane Trickster,
Assassin, Dragon Disciple, Duelist, Eldritch Knight, Loremaster, Mystic
Theurge, Pathfinder Chronicler, and Shadowdancer. For the most part, and until very recent,
Pathfinder hasn’t been a game where prestige classes thrive. Apart from some specific flavour reasons, a
character would usually be better off simply continuing in their base class
rather than taking levels in a prestige class.

Chapter 12 is “Gamemastering” (15 pages). As its title indicates, this chapter helps
the person running a game (the “Gamemaster” or “GM”) prepare an adventure,
referee the rules, deal with common problems at the table, etc. It’s okay for what it is, but I’ve seen
better resources to help new GMs figure out what they’re doing.

Chapter 13 is “Environment” (39 pages). This chapter contains a lot of little things
to help make the setting interesting. It
contains rules on weather, travelling through the wilderness, dealing with traps,
and so forth. It’s primarily for the GM
too and shouldn’t be a priority to master until more fundamental rules are
digested.

Chapter 14 is “Creating NPCs” (11 pages). This chapter gives rules for creating
background (non-player) characters by using “NPC classes” like a Commoner. I have to admit I never use this chapter, as
I just rely on NPC stat blocks already generated in other Pathfinder products.

Chapter 15 is “Magic Items” (101 pages). Your adventurer is going to want some cool
magic gear, and this chapter explains what it does, how much it costs, and how
it’s made. It’s pretty extensive and
detailed.

Last up, there are appendices summarizing “Special Abilities”,
“Conditions” (status effects a character might be under), “Inspiring Reading”,
and “Game Aids” (other products you can purchase).

The Core Rulebook is a hefty tome for an
RPG book. For players coming from
D&D 3.5, it’s basically a combination of the Player’s Handbook and the Dungeon
Master’s Guide in a single volume, but refined and improved. The book is, with the single exception of the
deities, completely “setting neutral” (that is, it’s suitable for play in any
campaign world or a homemade setting). There’s
some excellent artwork taken from other Paizo products mixed in with some
artwork that’s more pedestrian. Still,
the production quality overall is fantastic.
I would normally go into more detail, but there are hard word counts on
these reviews. So I’ll sum up by saying:
this is the one book you won’t leave home without, and it’s worth every penny.

Special Note: The Core Rulebook was recently released in a
smaller softcover. The interior is
exactly the same as the sixth printing of the hardcover, but it’s lighter and
easier to carry. I’ve been using it for
a few months now, and I’m quite happy with the font size, reduced price,
durability, and ease of use.